


Legend

by Nebulad



Series: Sea of Stars [29]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Other, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 05:44:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10690950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: All at once, Garrus stopped moving entirely and looked up at her. It took her a second, but finally she noticed him watching her and… didn’t stop, but slowed down her consumption of crab. “What’s gunna happen to the Normandy?” he asked. The war ended about a year ago now, give or take the few weeks afterwards where time got blurry and panicky.“It’s my ship,” she said, like she didn’t quite understand the question.





	Legend

They were eating a nice dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant that did dextro equivalents (and did them damn well, which Garrus was gunna put in his glowing review of the place), and everything was a weird shade of normal. It wasn’t their _first_ actual real date that hadn’t ended in a shootout (that one was when they went to see a shockingly good remake of _Fleet and Flotilla)_ but it was _one_ of the ones and it was still kind of a victory, even after all this time.

Faust was on probably the fifth plate dedicated entirely to black pepper beef and these little pocket shaped things she called _rangoons._ He was eating _bowls_ of noodles made from plants back home (he wasn’t sure which ones but knew that he wouldn’t vomit it all back up later), without the excuse of biotics to justify any of it. They were comfortably quiet as she threw back some human alcohol he hadn’t quite caught the name of, and he tried to spear some fish on the end of his fork (he’d tried chopsticks earlier, but apparently his balance of fingers was off).

All at once, he stopped moving entirely and looked up at her. It took her a second, but finally she noticed him watching her and… didn’t stop, but slowed down her consumption of crab. “What’s gunna happen to the _Normandy?”_ he asked. The war ended about a year ago now, give or take the few weeks afterwards where time got blurry and panicky. Him and Shep were still walking the long road, but they were at a place now where they could go it together with minimal institutional support. They still showed up for evals and physicals and therapy, but they could live in a house alone together without it becoming a minefield.

“It’s my ship,” she said, like she didn’t quite understand the question.

“You retired,” he reminded her. She’d sent back her fancy dress blues with a short, but considering Faust as a person, civil _no thanks._ Spectre Alenko took over duties that would’ve been hers, and she settled into apartment hunting with her boyfriend.

“It’s _my_ ship,” she repeated, more insistently. He worried, for a second, that it was going to be one of those _things._ They popped up every now and again between the two of them— outbursts that neither of them could explain. Garrus crouched behind their couch because he was suddenly certain that they were surrounded by mercs at eight pm on a Tuesday. Shepard biotically smashed the shower door because it’d been closing in on her and she hadn’t been able to breathe. They’d mutually terrified a movie-goer at a theatre when they’d lit up their cell and both of them had wordlessly assumed it was some sort of Reaper creature rising from between the seats.

“And Joker’s, when you’re doing stunts,” he reminded her with a tense smile. She sat back, taking slow breaths and closing her eyes. It’s what the therapist said to do— block out as much outside stimuli as possible and fixate on a neutral body part. Focus on the tip of your nose until the Reapers went away.

She picked up her phone and shot off a quick text, jamming a forkful of beef into her mouth while she did it. He waited, trying to resist the urge to nervously empty his bowl and _definitely_ attempting to _calm the hell down._ Nothing was coming. Not every quiet moment was the calm before the storm. If his brain would _shut up_ for a second, they could finish this date up, go home, and watch the elcor home improvement channel until they fell asleep. “Faust?” he asked, trying not to sound as stressed as he was rapidly becoming.

Her phone buzzed and they both jumped. Faust said something impolite in French, snatching the device off the table where she’d dropped it in surprise. Her eyes scanned the message and her face fell in response. “Hackett says it’s grounded.”

“Grounded?” On one hand it was a good thing, because now it wouldn’t become a stranger’s ship after everything they’d been through. On the other, starships were _meant_ to fly. Joker would be crushed— Faust was already crushed as she looked up at him, her food forgotten.

He watched her face take some sort of journey he wasn’t _precisely_ privy to. There was the hurt, the brief sense of being totally overwhelmed, anger, and then… she took out her phone again, texting with both hands. The device was new enough that the keyboard still clicked. The difference this time was that just as she finished, his phone buzzed.

He made eye contact and she had that look on her face. He called it _charge_ because regardless of the actual situation, it was her Vanguard game-face. “You just messaged the group chat,” he said, like she didn’t know.

“Sure did, Vakarian. You with me?” He didn’t even have to read the message to know what she wanted to do. Faust Shepard was going to steal the _Normandy._

“Are we… ready for this?” He hated to be the voice of reason, because his answer to _are you with me_ was always _right behind you_ , but… the war hadn’t been easy on them. They hadn’t had any outlets, the two of them— Tali had Rannoch (equally stressful but at least some variety), Liara had the Shadow Broker, Miranda had her sister— and the time they spent fixating on trying to save the galaxy…

Was the _Normandy_ really the best place for them to be?

“No missions,” she swore, nearly bouncing in her seat now. “Nothing serious, we don’t even need to gear up. I’m just saying, maybe the Shadow Broker has a spare garage where we can park our baby so she doesn’t become a hunk of metal in an aviation museum somewhere.”

His phone buzzed again and he knew without a doubt that Joker and EDI were already en route. Once more, and he’d put money on Tali. “What do we tell Hackett?” he asked.

“I’ll text him back, make a fuss like he expects to me, come to some dumb compromise while we’re cruising through space.” She reached out for his hand and squeezed, and… her eyes were _alive._ Sometimes she just looked so empty and angry and he _hated_ the galaxy for what it’d taken from her, but for a second… for a heartbeat, he was meeting the stone-faced Commander Shepard outside the Citadel Tower, starstruck and completely charmed just like his dad said he would be.

“I’ll pull the car around while you go get the cheque.”

. . . . .

Joker was leaning on Faust and both of them were staring up at the _Normandy._ It was almost impossible to resist, and standing there next to EDI, Garrus couldn’t help but feel that his gut was right about this one. He hadn’t considered it back at the restaurant, but EDI and the ship were one and the same. Grounding it tied EDI down too, which didn’t seem fair; sure, the same was true of wherever they parked it, but it gave her more… authority over the decision. She’d agreed readily enough, so he was willing to take her word on the wisdom of the decision.

In a moment of bizarre calm, he didn’t even flinch when Tali approached from behind and took his arm. “Liara took a shuttle ahead so she could scramble some security,” she reported in a whisper— that was the feeling around the ship, like they were in the presence of some immense _being_ that spoke to each of them.

“Already done, groundside.” Kasumi literally appeared from air, her head already tilted up to gaze at the hull. She took the other side of Joker but didn’t bother to offer herself as a crutch— him and Shepard were in some sort of trance that no one was gunna break.

She’d been followed, although he was sure she knew. “Not too many guards here, huh?” James asked, not particularly concerned. Garrus wondered if he’d taken care of that but the newly minted N7 recruit didn’t elaborate. Kaidan was barely a step behind him, though, and he was _sure_ that while Faust had failed to remember all the useful Spectre ways in which she could make this easier on the team, Alenko hadn’t.

“Good, I’m not too late then,” he said with all the faux casual attitude of someone who was out of breath from running. “I’ve got Grunt, Wrex, Jacob, and Samara on hold. They got the message but they’re off-station,” he added. “Figured we could vid-call them in.”

“You got engineers, dumbasses?” Jack very subtly announced her arrival alongside Miranda, Donnelly, Adams, and Daniels. They all joined the growing crowd, and Garrus noticed that everyone was holding on to someone else. This felt so much bigger than it had when they’d first stolen the Normandy.

“Who are we still waiting for?” Miranda asked, even _her_ voice hushed.

“Keep your pants on, we’re coming.” Zaeed approached with Javik of all people, the two of them smelling faintly of burnt thermal clips. “Cortez and Traynor needed a ride, and they had equipment to haul. Figured the fancy engineers would want their own tools to use.” Said engineers perked up when on cue, Steve and Samantha rolled up with the boxes that’d been removed from the _Normandy_ for liability reasons. Steve took his place over by James, punching his shoulder and keeping his eyes trained upwards. Traynor shuffled over to Tali with a look of determination that would make Shepard proud if she was actually looking.

Chakwas was the last to show up, looking a little tense. “This’ll be the second time you goad me into a crime, Commander,” she said, as if she cared.

“Only the second?” Garrus asked.

“I’m not counting Cerberus.”

“That’s poor methodology, Doctor,” Traynor teased.

Tali sighed almost nostalgically. “This’ll be the new crew’s first grand theft auto. We’ll add their fingerprints to the scrapbook.”

“It doesn’t count as a crime if you have a cop with you,” James said, jerking his thumb back at Garrus.

Steve snorted. “That’s right up there with _they have to tell you if they’re a cop.”_

“He’s a vigilante,” Miranda corrected.

“He’s Shepard’s boyfriend. That’s _gotta_ be a full time job.” Jack smiled wickedly over at Garrus and he shrugged. Sure it was, but if someone had to step up to be in love with the best person in the galaxy, he would take on the burden of falling asleep together and learning how to make levo coffee.

Zaeed was the one who broke them out of the reverie they’d slipped into, although he wasn’t completely immune to it. From his spot at the edge of the group, a little closer to Javik than normal and politely sitting still for Karin, he directed his next question at the hull of the ship. “Are we gettin’ this show on the road before or after C-Sec shows up?”

All eyes turned to Shepard to find that she was crying. She wasn’t making a big deal of it; there were no wracking sobs or any noise at all coming out of her. She just stood there silently and watched her ship, leaning back into the warmth of her crew while tears leaked steadily from the corners of her eyes and dripped down her jaw.

For a second, no one moved or spoke. They were all together, off-planet and advance shuttle and standing at the foot of a legend. “Let’s get going,” she announced in her loud Commander voice, and her crew and family washed forward like a wave to get started.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and it's a link to my writing Tumblr where you get all this content plus me complaining about how levo vs dextro is misrepresented in the series but at the same time I don't wanna fucking research it so I'm just gunna dance around. Also other people's fic. You can also talk to me there and I'll reply (unlike on here where I usually don't reply because numbers).
> 
> Anyway it was like 2am yesterday (today?) and I was suddenly like wait what happens to the Normandy? Like reasonably speaking I'm sure they could hand it off to Kaidan but I also feel like the ship has so much history behind it and like it's such a fucking icon that they can't put it back into service _without_ Commander Shepard and the full Normandy Crew. Also re: off-station companions, I did have to put a group of them away purely because 1) the scene would get crowded and 2) reasonably speaking, a year later not everyone would be hanging around. So I picked Jacob with a family, Samara with a mission, Wrex and Grunt with a planet. Be comforted that while they are absent, they most certainly got vid-called in Wrex and Grunt just yelled incoherently at takeoff while Jacob was trying _so hard_ not to laugh because the kid is asleep but also _jesus christ you guys_.
> 
> And no, I have no idea what station they're actually on mostly because I can't really... comprehend the damage done to the Citadel. Like is the station still afloat? It had to be because where would it go? It couldn't crash into Earth because it's bigger than Earth, but would they be able to get it functional in a year? Bioware, who finds it hard to count when stuff takes more than one year to happen, would probably agree so they're _probably_ on the Citadel and I could probably justify each companion's presence _on_ the Citadel but /shrug.


End file.
